


i've got a mad little crush on you

by settledthesun



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Cora is grumpy, F/F, Lydia is persistent, Stiles is attracted to everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 15:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2115489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/settledthesun/pseuds/settledthesun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few minutes later, when the coffee’s finally made, she hands it to Lydia and says, ‘Thank you for choosing Cup of Hale, feel free to try one of the chain brands across town next time.’</p><p>Lydia practically guffaws at this, before smiling a big red smile at Cora.</p><p>‘Oh, I’m fairly sure I’ll be back. See you soon, Hale.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	i've got a mad little crush on you

**Author's Note:**

> everyone loves a good coffee shop AU and i love cora/lydia more than is reasonable.  
> it didn't really turn out how i wanted, but hey ho, i had it lying around for far too long and decided to finally finish it. all mistakes are completely my own.
> 
> title taken from katie herzig's 'hey na na'

The first time they meet is a few weeks into the college year.

It’s another fairly busy day in Cup of Hale, a common occurrence for Beacon Hill’s most popular coffee shop. Its cheap, but damn good coffee, along with its cool environment and almost unnaturally good looking staff makes it a popular haunt, particularly among students from the local college.

Cora is cleaning the coffee machine when the bell above the door goes, signaling the arrival of yet more teenagers in desperate need of a caffeine fix to make it through the day. She glances over and, noting that Stiles is on the till to take their order, turns her attention back to the task at hand.

‘Why, Lydia Martin, to what do we owe this pleasure?’

Cora rolls her eyes at Stiles predictably attempting to flirt with another customer. 

‘I will tip you very kindly if you make me my coffee whilst only talking to me as much as is absolutely necessary.’

‘Well I don’t think that exac-.’

‘What did I just say?’

‘Yes, but Ly-.’

‘Would you look at that, you just lost a dollar.’

Finding herself trying not to laugh at Stiles’ indignation, Cora turns to take in the scene before her. Stiles is gaping at a girl leaning across the counter menacingly. She must be their age, with red hair tucked neatly behind her ear and an eyebrow that seems as if it’s almost permanently raised. 

Boyd returns from clearing tables, and Cora grabs onto his arm as he passes by.

‘Who’s Stilinski harassing now?’ She asks him, nodding over to the pair.

‘Oh, that’s Lydia, she’s in one of Stiles’ classes. He asked her out on the first day and she hit him over the head with her heaviest textbook.’

‘That sounds like a sight to behold,’ she responds, delighting in the image of Stiles being turned down so magnificently.

‘It truly was a beautiful moment,’ adds Erica, who was placing fresh pastries into the display cabinet.

‘Hey Cora?’ Stiles jogs over to her. ‘Can you please make this customer’s order before she causes me bodily harm again.’

‘Fine, but you owe me,’ she says, ducking his attempt to ruffle her hair as she makes her way over to the till. She turns to face Lydia, who isn’t being even the tiniest bit subtle about the once-over she’s giving her.

‘Sorry about that, we try to keep him on a leash. What can I get you?’

‘You might want to tighten that leash a little. And I’m not sure, why don’t you surprise me?

‘Because it’s my job to take your order, not play guessing games with the customers.’

‘Surely it’s your job to do as the customer desires, sweetheart.’

‘Not when I own the place, princess.’

Lydia sends her a questioning look at this. ‘You’re Hale?’

‘Cora Hale. It belongs to me and my siblings. Which means, I don’t have to put up with the whims of difficult customers if I don’t want to.’

She’s pretty sure she sounds stern, but the big, bright smile that appears on Lydia’s features has her second guessing this.

‘Caramel macchiato, with cinnamon,’ she simply says, taking a 10$ bill out of her purse and sliding it across the counter. ‘To go.’

‘Coming right up,’ Cora says, glad to get away from the insufferable girl and her smirk.

A few minutes later, when the coffee’s finally made, she hands it to Lydia and says:

‘Thank you for choosing Cup of Hale, feel free to try one of the chain brands across town next time.’

Lydia practically guffaws at this, before smiling a big red smile at Cora.

‘Oh, I’m fairly sure I’ll be back. See you soon, Hale.’

And with that, she turns on her (very expensive looking) heel and is out the door, sending one last grinning look back to Cora through the window, who merely scoffs in return.

Stiles appears at her side moments later, propping his head on his hands, leaning his elbows on the counter like something from a cartoon, letting out a dreamy sigh.

‘Isn’t she just magnificent,’ he says, more to himself than Cora.

‘A magnificent pain in my ass, is what she is. I mean seriously, who does she think she i- Stiles, did you just drool on the counter?!’

 

 

 

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and Cora is sick.

She’s spent the day wrapped in an absurd amount of blankets whilst Derek makes her endless bowls of soup.

She doesn’t have the heart to tell Derek to stop because he’s really playing into the protective big brother right now and she knows he secretly loves when she lets her walls down around him.

She’s lost count of how many episodes of The Office she’s binge-watched between naps, and all but growls when she realises it’s only half three in the afternoon.

Does time literally stand still when you’re sick? Is that a thing?

She’s interrupted from her thoughts by her phone buzzing. It takes her a minute to find it nestled somewhere amongst her blanket cacoon, and when she unlocks it she finds she has a new snapchat from Stiles.

She opens and it and sees that he’s sent her a picture of Lydia in the cafe, peering over the counter.

She rolls her eyes and sends him a snap of a box of tissues (nobody needs to see how gross she looks right now) with the text, ‘Stiles, that’s so fucking creepy.’

He responds a minute later with a picture of his grinning face. Underneath it says, ‘she was asking about you.’

Another one follows immediately after, this time Stiles is pulling a sad face with drawn on tears. ‘She called you ‘the cute surly barista’. I’m cute!’

Derek appears before she can reply, grabbing her empty bowl to take through to the kitchen and says, ‘you sure you need all those blankets? You’re looking a little hot in the face.’

‘I’m fine!’ she squeaks, earning her an eyebrow raise from Derek, who just shrugs and heads out the room. 

She unwraps herself from one of the blankets, throwing it across the room.

She must be too hot, she figures, because there’s no way in hell she was blushing. 

It’s the Thursday of the second week of November and Cora’s been back to work since Monday, having successfully gotten over her bout of sickness whilst gaining an intense dislike towards soup.

(Sorry, Derek.)

Cora’s grabbing her apron from the hooks in the staff room, having just checked in for her afternoon shift. Business is pretty dead today, so she figures it’s perfectly justified for her to make her way over to farthest table on the left when she notices its occupant.

She collapses into the chair opposite Lydia, who has her hair tied up in a messy bun and her head stuck in what looks like a series of very thick math textbooks. She looks up briefly at the arrival of Cora, before dropping her gaze back to the words in front of her.

‘Can I help you?’ 

‘I don’t know, you’re the one who asked after me,’ Cora says, referring to Stiles’ snapchat.

Lydia’s attention remains fixed to her work, but Cora can clearly see the way her eyebrow raises. ‘Stilinski is such a blabber-mouth. And you are actually capable of making my coffee order the way I like it, unlike certain novelty t-shirt wearing classmates of mine.’

‘I’m touched.’

‘So you should be. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a deadline.’

‘You sure like math, huh?’

‘I’m not the top in my class for nothing.’

‘Alright smartass, I’ll leave you to it.’

They don’t talk much for the rest of Cora’s shift, but she brings Lydia coffee whenever she catches her rubbing at her temples or tapping her pen against the table.

The small smile Lydia shoots Cora whenever she places the hot mug down next to her more than makes up for the lack of conversation.

 

 

 

It’s the last day before Christmas break and Lydia had come into Cup of Hale about a half hour ago. In that time she’d offered only minimal conversation, ordering her drink and going to sit alone in the corner, staring out the window. Cora gave up on her attempt to distract herself with writing up the new menu, and headed over to the other girl.

‘Though I hate to admit that I even noticed, you don’t seem your normal preppy, plotting self.’

Lydia looks up at Cora’s arrival, before peering back down at her, now cold, coffee.

‘What can I say, thought I’d give it a break in the name of Christmas spirit.’

‘Okay, what’s up?’ Cora drops into the seat next to her, propping her head on her hands.

‘My mom’s decided to spend Christmas in Tenerife with her new boyfriend, whose name I’m not even sure of, and spending it with my father would mean playing happy families with his stepford wife and two sets of twins. Two sets? When have you ever heard of that happening before, it’s ridiculous. And they all wear matching sweaters, it’s hideous.’

Cora chuckles, not used to hearing Lydia talk at such length.

‘Allison’s invited me to spend the break at her house with her family. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful and I love Allison, and I’m not even that into Christmas, it’s just-. I don’t know, it always felt like the only real time we were an actual family. And the dorms kicked us out this morning and Allison can’t pick me up until six, so I’m stuck with nothing to do for two hours. And, fuck, you close at five today don’t you, I just remembered.’

Cora raises her hand, cutting Lydia off from her rambling. ‘Don’t worry about it, I always hang around to make sure everything’s sorted for the next day. You’re free to stay here in the warmth until Allison picks you up.’

‘I-, thank you, Cora.’

‘Don’t mention it. Coffee?’

‘Yes, please.’

She disappears for a few minutes to make the coffee, returning to slide the steaming mug and an extra something across the table.

‘What’s this?’ Lydia looks up.

‘You like cinnamon, right? I ordered in some of these muffins and I was just wondering what you’d think of them? If they’re worth getting again, I mean.’

Cora had definitely ordered them after learning how much Lydia loved cinnamon, but she didn’t need to know that.

‘Thanks,’ Lydia smiles, reaching over to pick at the muffin.

Cora turns her attention to closing the place up. She closes the blinds and begins stacking the chairs, making sure to shoot Lydia a glance every so often. She still wasn’t her usual self, but she was definitely looking happier than she was when she came in.

Ten minutes later, the place is ready to be closed up and Lydia, noticing this, stands to leave, coming over to Cora, who is perched atop the counter, flicking through an old paperback.

‘Allison just texted me, she’s round the corner. What do I owe you?’

Cora hops down, spinning the cafe’s keys round on her finger. ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.’

Lydia smiles, the first genuine one Cora’s seen from her all evening, and gets ready to leave.

‘And you better be back to your normal self by New Year, you can’t leave me with Stilinski as the only person to argue with. You could never be that cruel.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ Lydia replies, with a hint of her usual smirk.

Cora laughs, coming out from behind the counter to unlock the front door for the other girl. Lydia follows after her, wrapping her designer (because, duh) scarf around her neck and pulling on her mittens. 

(Cora will never admit how damn cute she looks in those thing.)

‘Thank you, Cora. For everything.’ And with that she leans up the extra inch or so that Cora is, and presses a kiss to her cheek. ‘Merry Christmas.’

‘Merry Christmas, Lydia.’

She leans against the doorway and watches the other girl get into Allison’s car. The red-head waves as they drive past, which Cora returns, before locking the door behind her and heading home.

(She smiles the whole way.)

 

 

 

New Year has been and gone, and it’s a pretty average day at the coffee house.

Erica is watching appreciatively as Boyd heaves a large sack of flour over his shoulder, making his way past Stiles, who is learning over the counter, flirting with a curly-haired guy that had recently becomes a regular. Isaac, was it?

Cora is wiping down the counter when the bell over the door sounds, followed by Stiles’ voice: ‘Hey Lydia, what can I- oh.’

Cora looks up just in time to see a determined looking Lydia marching towards her. Before she can ask what’s wrong, Lydia has gripped her by the collar of her uniform and pulled her down into a searing kiss. Their lips move together for a few seconds (not nearly enough in Cora’s mind) until Lydia breaks the kiss, licking her own lips and straightening Cora’s shirt.

‘Christmas break gave me time to think about things and after much self-analysis I have come to the conclusion that I am outrageously attracted to you, and it is definitely time we do something about that. So, I’m taking you out tonight. Wear something that isn’t a coffee-stained apron and meet me here at eight,’

Unable to form actual words, Cora just nods and finds herself being brought down into another kiss. The other girl pulls away, pecks her on the cheek, and breezes out of the place with a final, ‘see you tonight.’

Still trying to process what just happened, Cora stutters for a moment, taking in a smirking Erica and Boyd before turning to an equally as wide-eyed Stiles. Once the shock has passed, he lets out a snort of laughter.

‘Smooth Hale, real smooth.’

‘Hey, which one of us has a date tonight?’

Stiles seems to ponder this for a moment, before turning back to Isaac, who seems completely bemused by the whole situation.

‘So how about you and me find a different purpose for those scarves of yours?’

‘Seriously?’ 

‘You don’t have to respond to him, Isaac, he’ll go away eventually.’

‘Shut up Boyd, I’m in my element here.’

‘Excuse me?’ A customer is trying to catch Cora’s attention, waving a hand in her face, wanting to order his coffee. Cora looks between the customer and the door, before groaning and making her decision.

‘Oh, fuck it.’

Cora tears her apron off, making sure to throw it over Stiles’ head, who was continuing to share shameless innuendos with Isaac. She quickly navigates through the disgruntled customers queuing for their orders, before barging through the door and breaking into a full on sprint down the street. She can vaguely make out the petite figure of Lydia ahead of her, and races after her.

‘Lydia!’ She calls, grabbing the girl’s attention and causing her to spin around to face her.

Cora screeches to a halt in front of her (god bless her high school track team) whilst Lydia looks surprised to see her.

‘And what exactly are you-,’ she begins to say, but is cut off by Cora crashing their lips together. Her hands tangle in red hair as she nips the shorter girl’s bottom lip, causing her to gasp into her mouth and, god, Cora may well want this girl more than she’s wanted anything before.

They stay like that for a while, just kissing in the middle of the street, completely ignoring all else around them, Cora eventually pulls back, her breathing shallow, but keeps on hand cupping Lydia’s jaw, thumb running along her cheek.

‘I guess I couldn’t wait until tonight,’ is all she says.

Lydia lets out a loud laugh at this, and Cora thinks she may have just fallen a little bit in love. ‘Oh, Cora Hale,’ she says. ‘I do like you.’

‘Well, you’re insufferable,’ Cora replies, earning her a smack on the arm. ‘But I maybe I kind of like you too.’

‘Come on,’ Lydia takes her by the hand. ‘Let’s go make out in front of Stilinski and see how long it takes him to cry.’

Cora laces their fingers together and smiles as they make their way back to the cafe together.‘A woman after my own heart.’

 

(Stiles doesn’t cry, but he does gape at them for a while. That is, until Isaac drags him into the backroom to distract him. Cora goes to smack them both around the head, but then Lydia’s hand is on her thigh and-, well, fuck it. She’ll deal with them later.)


End file.
